SYDNEY — Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been granted bail after spending more than a week in custody over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.The Victoria Cross recipient and former corporal in Australia’s Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment was arrested at Sydney Domestic Airport last week and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder, alleged to have occurred in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2012.His lawyers have told a Sydney court on Friday the case was unprecedented and involved “uncharted legal territory”, arguing it was likely to take years, with “many twists and turns”.They said the fairness of the proceedings would be compromised if their client had to defend himself from custody.Investigators allege the 47-year-old was involved in the deaths of several unarmed Afghan detainees, either by killing them or ordering a subordinate to do so, between 2009 and 2012.Judge Greg Grogan said Roberts-Smith was likely to “spend not weeks or months, but years — possibly years and years — in custody before a trial is reached”.He agreed Roberts-Smith’s case was exceptional, and imposed bail conditions which he said would address prosecutors’ concerns about the potential flight risk or any interference with witnesses or evidence.Appearing via video link, dressed in prison greens, Roberts-Smith sat motionless as bail was granted.He will have to report to police three times a week, grant them access to his electronic devices, and forfeit his passport — which must be done before he is released from Silverwater Prison in Sydney.Grogan also ordered a bail surety of A$250,000 and placed restrictions on Roberts-Smith’s travel within Australia.If he breached the bail conditions, “his arrest would no doubt come very swiftly and he would find himself once again donned in green”, Grogran added.The criminal case follows a 2023 civil defamation case, in which a judge found there was “substantial truth” to the claims against Roberts-Smith.Brought by Roberts-Smith against Nine newspapers which first published allegations of misconduct in 2018, the high-profile trial was the first time in history any court has examined claims of war crimes by Australian forces.SYDNEY — Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been granted bail after spending more than a week in custody over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.The Victoria Cross recipient and former corporal in Australia’s Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment was arrested at Sydney Domestic Airport last week and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder, alleged to have occurred in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2012.His lawyers have told a Sydney court on Friday the case was unprecedented and involved “uncharted legal territory”, arguing it was likely to take years, with “many twists and turns”.They said the fairness of the proceedings would be compromised if their client had to defend himself from custody.Investigators allege the 47-year-old was involved in the deaths of several unarmed Afghan detainees, either by killing them or ordering a subordinate to do so, between 2009 and 2012.Judge Greg Grogan said Roberts-Smith was likely to “spend not weeks or months, but years — possibly years and years — in custody before a trial is reached”.He agreed Roberts-Smith’s case was exceptional, and imposed bail conditions which he said would address prosecutors’ concerns about the potential flight risk or any interference with witnesses or evidence.Appearing via video link, dressed in prison greens, Roberts-Smith sat motionless as bail was granted.He will have to report to police three times a week, grant them access to his electronic devices, and forfeit his passport — which must be done before he is released from Silverwater Prison in Sydney.Grogan also ordered a bail surety of A$250,000 and placed restrictions on Roberts-Smith’s travel within Australia.If he breached the bail conditions, “his arrest would no doubt come very swiftly and he would find himself once again donned in green”, Grogran added.The criminal case follows a 2023 civil defamation case, in which a judge found there was “substantial truth” to the claims against Roberts-Smith.Brought by Roberts-Smith against Nine newspapers which first published allegations of misconduct in 2018, the high-profile trial was the first time in history any court has examined claims of war crimes by Australian forces.
